Tommy Boy celebrates its 30th anniversary with a new Limited-Edition 4K Ultra HD SteelBook from Paramount Home Entertainment. Filmmaker Peter Segal supervised the remastering process as the film arrives on 4K UHD for the first time. Audiences can bring it home in a 4K/Blu-ray Combo or in a Limited-Edition SteelBook, both of which include hours of legacy bonus content and access to a Digital copy of the film.

Tommy Callahan III (Chris Farley) and Richard Hayden (David Spade) have no business going on a sales trip together. They are the polar opposites of each other and it shows. And yet, they still find a way to somehow make it work out, especially since Tommy wants to save the Callahan family’s auto parts business. He needed seven years to graduate from Marquette University, where Farley attended in real life, graduating in 1986. Now that he’s done with school, his father, Thomas R. “Big Tom” Callahan Jr., offers him an executive position at their auto parts company.

But then…Big Tom dies on the day of his wedding to Beverly Burns-Barrish (Bo Derek). The bank soon reneges on a loan but then Tommy offers his shares in return for giving him time to sell 500,000 brake pads. But getting in the way of Tommy’s efforts to save the company is new stepbrother Paul Barrish (Rob Lowe). Paul, working with Tommy’s new stepmother, Beverly, puts his mischievous plans to work in a get-rich quick scheme by selling Beverly’s new shares to Zalinsky Auto Parts owner Ray Zalinsky (Dan Aykroyd).

Tommy shows some real growth in his character arc. He goes from this display of immaturity–both socially and emotionally–to someone capable of learning from their past actions. I mean, the guy we meet at the start of the film would probably not have impulsively taken a trip to Chicago to save the family business. And yet, that’s exactly what Tommy does. Thanks to former high school classmate Michelle Brock (Julie Warner) spying on Paul and Beverly having romantic interactions, Tommy learns something that works out to his advantage.

Until Chris Farley’s tragic and untimely death in 1997, Chris Farley and David Spade had all the makings of becoming the biggest screen duo since Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. Tommy Boy and Black Sheep were not the best comedy movies, of course, but the two knew how to work off of each other from their time on Saturday Night Live. Much like Aykroyd and Belushi, it’s a shame that we didn’t have the chance to see what they could have done with more opportunities. Aykroyd later praised Farley’s work in the film when he was interviewed in Brent Hodge and Derik Murray’s 2015 documentary, I Am Chris Farley.

Interestingly enough, Segal would later reunite with Aykroyd for his 1996 presidential comedy, My Fellow Americans. Until watching the film on 4K, I had completely forgotten that Aykroyd had a small role in Tommy Boy. Heck, it had been so long that I had forgotten about Rob Lowe’s uncredited role as Tommy’s stepbrother.

Tommy Boy isn’t a great film by any means, but Chris Farley and David Spade put on one hell of a show together.

Bonus Features

• Commentary by director Peter Segal
• Featurettes:
  • Tommy Boy: Behind the Laughter
  • Stories from the Side of the Road
  • Just the Two of Us
  • Growing Up Farley
• Storyboard Comparisons
• Deleted and Extended Scenes
• Alternate Takes
• Gag Reel
• Photo Gallery
• TV Spots
• Theatrical Trailer

DIRECTOR: Peter Segal
SCREENWRITERS: Bonnie Turner & Terry Turner
CAST: Chris Farley, David Spade, Bo Derek, Julie Warner, Sean McCann, Zach Grenier, James Blendick, with Dan Aykroyd and Brian Dennehy

Paramount Pictures released Tommy Boy in theaters on March 31, 1995. Grade: 3/5

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